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(January 20, 2005)

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     SAILING, TAKE ME AWAY:  Used to be that if you wanted to experience good live music, you'd go to a club. Then, the idea of the jazz festival took hold: Daylong gatherings, sometimes full weekends and even weeks of performers scheduled to play their hearts out for audiences sated with food and drink in an outdoor setting. Well now, jazz has taken to the high seas! Get out your lifejacket, cause jazz cruises are now the thing. While there have long been any number of day trips and destination-related cruises around the country featuring a broad array of smooth jazz and straight-ahead performers, now the phenomenon has exploded. Within the last year or two, everybody and their mama wants to put you and a plethora of jazz-playin' cats together on a big boat headed toward a seductive locale.

 

     Veteran pianist and Fourplay member Bob James recently hosted the first-ever Showboat Music & Comedy Cruise, which departed from San Diego, California for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on January 3rd. The seven-day cruise along the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez featured performances by blue-eyed soul star Michael McDonald, throaty rocker Eddie Money, drummer and fellow Fourplay star Harvey Mason, saxophonist Tom Scott & the L.A. All Stars featuring Robben Ford, guitarist Dan Siegel, the Greg Rolie Band, singer Anne Kerry Ford, and many others in addition to some top comics. James himself was not slated to play. The boat returned on January 10th, and I'm sure folks are eagerly looking forward to the 2006 edition. You can check out www.showboatcruises.com for updates about that.

 

     Another ship currently on the high seas carrying a cargo of smooth jazz fans is Canadian saxophonist Warren Hill's Smooth Cruise. The Holland America line's M.S. Zuiderdam departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Saturday, January 15th, headed to Nassau, The Bahamas; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; Tortola; and Holland America's private Bahamian island, Half Moon Cay. On board: Oleta Adams, Marc Antoine, Rick Braun, Norman Brown, Brian Culbertson, Jeff Golub, Euge Groove, Kirk Whalum and Peter White. Not satisfied with having live music on board night and day, Hill also set up an on-shore concert for cruisers with Dave Koz, set for January 18th on St. Thomas. Make plans for next year by checking in at www.warrenhillcruise.com.

 

     If you're disappointed because you missed those, cheer up. Two popular smooth jazz artists -- trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Koz -- have announced their own star-studded sailings for the fall. Braun's Smooth Jazz All Star Cruise is set for November 13th through November 20th, 2005, sailing to ports in the Gulf Of Mexico from Galveston Island, Texas. Artists set to tickle ears during the cruise are Mindi Abair, Peter White, Boney James, Euge Groove, Joyce Cooling, Marion Meadows, Craig Chaquico, Michael Lington, Nick Colionne, Brian Culbertson, and Alan Hewitt. Singer Al Jarreau and saxophonist Boney James will headline separately ticketed pre-cruise shows, set for November 11th and 12th respectively, at Moody Gardens Convention Center on Galveston Island. For more information, log onto www.allstarcruise.com, or to book a cabin, call 1-800-JAZZ-SAX.

 

     Meanwhile, the ubiquitous Dave Koz has lined up his own star power for his first floating event, which also takes place in November. Dave Koz & Friends At Sea is a seven-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera departing from San Diego on November 5th, 2005. This first sailing of the smooth jazz cruise aboard the M.S. Oosterdam will set sail to the Mexican ports of Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta before returning to San Diego on November 12th. Entertaining the masses on board will be Madrid-based guitarist Marc Antoine, vocalist Patti Austin, bassist Wayman Tisdale, European "chill" saxophonist Praful, and pianist David Benoit. For more information about Dave Koz & Friends At Sea, log onto www.davekozcruise.com.

 

     If you're the type of fan that enjoys straight-ahead jazz playing, there are cruise excursions for you as well. JazzTimes Magazine is again sponsoring the Fifth Annual Jazz Cruise 2005, which also embarks this fall. The M.S. Zuiderdam is again called into service, departing from Fort Lauderdale on October 29th and visiting Aruba, Curacao, and Half Moon Cay before returning on November 5th. Engaged for your on-board listening pleasure: drummer Ernie Adams, the Clayton Brothers Quintet, pianist Shelly Berg, pianist Cedar Walton, vocal group the Four Freshmen, saxophonist Houston Person, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, vocalist Marlena Shaw, and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, to name just a few. To get more info, log onto www.thejazzcruise.com.

 

     I have yet to set sail myself on one of these floating jazz-travaganzas, but the cruise concept combining food, music, water, and relaxation sounds delicious!  Bon Voyage!

 

     MASTERS AT WORK:  Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending the massive International Association of Jazz Education conference in Long Beach, California. This annual confab is the largest educational and networking gathering anywhere in the world, attracting some 8,000 attendees including performers, educators, students, label reps, managers, equipment manufacturers, college music programs, and journalists in the world of jazz. With four full days of panels, workshops, clinics, and performances, the IAJE celebrates and perpetuates the glory of jazz in all its forms.

 

     In addition, the IAJE gathering is traditionally the locale of the NEA Masters ceremony, which confers the lofty title as well as a much-needed grant of $25,000 to some of jazz music's national treasures. This year's honorees included the late bandleader and clarinetist Artie Shaw, impeccable song stylist Shirley Horn, Cuban reeds player Paquito D'Rivera, incomparable pianist and educator Dr. Billy Taylor, B-3 organist extraordinaire Jimmy Smith, trombone leader Slide Hampton, veteran guitarist Kenny Burrell, and Festival Productions founder George Wein. At the induction ceremony, held Friday January 7th at Long Beach's Terrace Theater and co-hosted by Ramsey Lewis and Nancy Wilson, the nominees waxed poetic while several performers rocked the building to its foundations with glorious musical tributes. Kudos go to inventive and lyrical pianist Geri Allen, veteran composer and bandleader Gerald Wilson and his sprawling brass-belted orchestra, and singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, whose scatting and musical invention on a version of "Mr. Paganini" was breathtaking.

 

     JAZZ IN THE SCHOOLS: If you are the parents or teacher of teens, take heed: The NEA (otherwise known as the National Endowment for the Arts) plans to make an extensive jazz curriculum available to high schools beginning in the fall of 2005. The group used the IAJE to announce the launch of NEA Jazz In The Schools, a five-unit, web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit that explores jazz as America's indigenous music, both as an art form and as a means to understanding American history. A sampler of the program will be available to classrooms in February. The program is being supported by a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation and is produced by Jazz At Lincoln Center. If you want to interest young people in our one American-born, African-derived art form and thus keep its traditions alive into the next generation, encourage your school--and your teen--to participate!

 

 

     Janine Coveney is the Smooth Jazz format manager for LAUNCH Radio Networks. She can be reached at thatjgirl@yahoo.com. 
 

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